


Uncle Zandeh

by AlpacaJinnie



Category: Arslan Senki | Heroic Legend of Arslan
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-12 23:19:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7953055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlpacaJinnie/pseuds/AlpacaJinnie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zandeh goes on an important quest but things don’t exactly end the way he expected</p>
            </blockquote>





	Uncle Zandeh

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Good morning fellow trash! I am not sure what my dear friend – who is posting this crap – has told you but this is my first ever fanfic being posted – I’m kinda new in the trashcan. In other words, please be nice? More importantly though; please enjoy!  
> Note: No Zandeh’s were physically harmed during the writing of this story  
> (Oh by the way, do not be fooled by the first part of the story. This story is not at all a serious one.)

The heat was burning, but this did not stop the young knight from galloping through the mountains at full speed. He had important news and he needed to deliver it quickly to his lord before night fell. Night in this area fell quickly and Zandeh was not familiar with the terrain or the area in general. He knew a night out here would not be a pleasant one. Whilst it was still very warm, nights out here were notoriously cold. He spurred his horse to gallop faster still, trying to reach the top of mountain path quicker than the sun which was making its way down to the same place on the horizon. Zandeh anxiously dug his heels into the horse’s flanks once more. When he reached the top of the path, he was glad to notice that the path would go downhill for a while. There weren’t any cliffs for several miles so the sun’s rays would not be blocked for at least another thirty minutes or so. He stopped his horse to look for the water in his saddle bags and quickly took a few sips before jumping back in the saddle.  

When he found the path he tied his horse to a tree and started jogging towards the house that was supposed to be at the end of it. The trees made it harder and harder to see where Zandeh was going but he knew he was close. He sped up his running as he ran along the precarious path. He had to get to Lord Hilmes!

‘Oi you!’

Zandeh briefly wondered why Hilmes would choose to let his wife live in such a dangerous and remote area, but Lord Hilmes’ relationship with those around the palace made it clear why the rightful ruler of Pars had to withdraw to a mountain hut. Surprisingly he wasn’t even talking about that boy claiming the throne and his murdering dog. With the explanation clear in his mind, he ignored the threats and comments the bandits threw at him due to him looking like a high-ranking soldier. He grabbed his mace and quickly dispatched of the group. A few thunderous blows later, he was jogging along the trail again. 

_Good thing I didn’t bring my horse here,_ Zandeh thought to himself. The path was illuminated quite poorly in the waning light and it was riddled with dead trees. Zandeh paused for a second to catch his breath. He looked up and saw the moon had already entered onto the night sky. 

_No time for breaks!_

With a deep breath he steadied himself and ran full speed towards the faint light that had to be the cottage where Lord Hilmes and Lady Irina lived. As it drew closer, Zandeh’s heart pounded harder. Finally, he reached the cottage and forgetting about his manners, he burst through the door.

‘Lord Hilmes! Important news from the royal capital!’ he yelled. 

Taking a second to look around the cottage the only person he found was Lady Irina looking quite startled.

‘Z-zandeh?’ she stammered his name in surprise ‘I am afraid my husband is not here right now; he is running an errand in the village.’

Zandeh immediately fell to his knees – although the lady could not see it. 

“My lady! I’m sorry for so rudely disturbing you! I wasn’t thinking!”

‘Oh, that is quite alright,’ she giggled silently, accustomed to Zandeh’s enthusiasm and sense of duty. 

‘Apologies!’ Zandeh said once more. ‘I must find him immediately! Good night my lady.’

‘Ahm, Lord Zandeh?’ Irina interjected before he left ‘I do not think it to be a wise idea if you were to leave at this hour. You know it is perilous during the day and seeing as you are not familiar with the surroundings, I would not feel well if you were to leave now.’ 

Zandeh stopped in his tracks – already at the door. Lady Irina was right, if he were to go out now, he would probably get lost. This would mean he would not be able to deliver his message until morning fell and he could regain his bearings. He also could not leave the message with Lady Irina. Although there was no doubt that she was to be trusted, Hilmes was adamant about not involving her in their political struggles. 

‘But you are welcome to stay here of course.’ Lady Irina spoke. ‘My husband should be back before long.’

Out of habit, Zandeh bowed before her before realising he would have to vocalise his gratitude. 

‘Thank you, Lady Irina!’

‘No need to be so polite. Come sit down!’ Lady Irina smiled kindly and Zandeh obeyed. ‘I shall make you some tea.’

Zandeh looked around the hut that his lord and lady lived in. It was definitely something else than the palaces that Lord Hilmes and his wife were used to. But it was a massive improvement over the nights they had spent together in the field during sieges and before battles. This, however, did not diminish Zandeh’s indignation over the fact that the rightful ruler of Pars was being forced to live in such circumstances by a little boy. He clenched his hands. He had sworn he would serve Lord Hilmes and help him reclaim the throne. But that seemed little more than a pipe-dream at the moment. 

‘Lord Zandeh?’ Irina spoke when she heard wood cracking. ‘Are you quite alright?’

Zandeh snapped back into reality and immediately unclenched his hands from the chair. 

‘Yes my lady, apologies for making you worry.’ 

Lady Irina put down a cup of tea in front of him and he politely thanked her for going through the trouble herself. She should have at least ten maids who would scramble to make tea the second she gave the order. Zandeh swore to himself that he would see her live in her own palace once more.

‘Lord Zandeh?’

‘Apologies my lady,’ he said, deciding to put his hands on the cup of tea rather than the abused chair.

He emptied his cup in silence, staring into nothingness, whilst Lady Irina went back to stitching Lord Hilmes’ clothes – Zandeh was genuinely impressed she could. Lord Hilmes was taking an awfully long time to come back and he felt it rude to just sit in silence. He looked around the cottage in a desperate attempt to find some topic for conversation. When Irina stood up to ask Zandeh if he wanted another cup of tea, he noticed that her belly was slightly bigger than it had been when he last saw her.

‘My lady, could it be -’ he paused for a second, if it was not what he thought it was and she took it the wrong way, that would surely invoke the wrath of his lord. ‘Could it be,’ he started again ‘that you are with child?’

Irina let out a gasp of surprise, and Zandeh shrunk in fear. To his relief she spoke with a bright smile on her face.

‘Oh my! Is it showing already?’ she rubbed her belly fondly and spoke ‘This one will be a great warrior just like the father!’

‘It would be an honour to serve alongside your child. I’m sure he would be a warrior like this world has never seen,’ Zandeh spoke.

Irina seemed to like the idea as her smile grew brighter still. 

‘My valiant little hero,’ she giggled softly

Time passed as Zandeh ran out of things to say about the baby’s future and fell back into silence. Meanwhile Lady Irina went back to somehow stitching Hilmes’ clothes. After an hour or so, Zandeh could hear a voice outside. He stood to look out the window to see who it was – though he sincerely doubted that raiders would dare come near. As he suspected it was indeed Lord Hilmes, but without his silver mask, instead he wore a black patch that covered about half of his face. He appeared to be talking to himself and Zandeh thought he could see a displeased frown on his lord’s face. 

Hilmes walked in and slammed the door shut behind him.

‘A silver piece for those loaves of bread?! Are they insane? Just who do they think I am, some kind of k-’

‘Hilmes, we have company.’

Hilmes’ head shot up whilst Zandeh’s quickly moved down. ‘Zandeh, I told you before that you need not bow or kneel to me whilst I live here. It is good to see you, though. Tell me, what news do you bring?’

‘Yes, my lord! I bring news from the royal capital. The former slaves have taken up arms. This might be an opening, my lord!’

Hilmes pensively looked away for some time, seriously considering the chance. It was true that this was the perfect opportunity to swoop in and claim what was his. There were still vassals that had sworn loyalty to him, he could use them. But there was one matter that he was not content about. 

‘Hilmes? What are we going to do?’

Hilmes looked at his pregnant wife. If there was a war to be fought, he could not take her with him, nor could he leave her here alone. 

‘Would you not rather raise our child in the palace?’ he dodged her question. 

‘It would not necessarily be a better environment to raise our child,’ Irina replied. ‘The plotting we both know to be going on is definitely not something I would like my child to be raised in. Also, I can’t help but think of the families that would be destroyed by the war. Think of how many sons we would send to their graves.’

Hilmes looked studied his wife’s expression and her arguments. She was not wrong. 

‘But we would finally be able to realise your dream, Hilmes, and if it brings stability to Ecbatana, I will do everything in my power to support your cause.’

Hilmes thought on it for a few minutes but eventually turned his attention to Zandeh.

‘My lord’ Zandeh enthusiastically exclaimed, ‘shall I put the preparations in motion?’

Hilmes’ looked at his wife behind him. ‘I am sorry Zandeh, we will require some time to think on the matter.’

‘Yes, my lord.’ Zandeh affirmed, having lost a part of his enthusiasm. ‘L-Lord Hilmes, forgive my rudeness but might I ask what happened to your mask?’

Hilmes looked at him for a moment and blinked. ‘Why, we bought this house with it. It was a _silver_ mask after all, it was not hard to find a good deal.’

A gasp from his general indicated to Hilmes that he was seriously shocked. He could not help but wonder why. Between roaming around dangerous mountains with his pregnant wife, or giving her some permanent shelter and a relatively comfortable life, the decision was made rather quickly. 

‘I shall speak of this with Irina this evening. You can rest Zandeh, I will prepare an extra bed for you.’

**  
**

> **The next morning after a nice, hardy breakfast**  
> 

**  
**

‘Zandeh, we have decided that we will not pursue the throne further. At least whilst our child grows up.’

Zandeh could not hide the disappointment in his face. He was ready to fight alongside his lord again but he seemed to have given up on what Zandeh had believed in all this time. Although Zandeh saw all their work of the past years crumbling, there were things he could believe in. He kneeled to his lord for the last time in a long time. 

‘Yes, my lord!’

‘Zandeh, please rise.’ Hilmes said, his tone carrying an unmistakable edge of compassion. ‘What will you do now that you no longer have to accompany me on campaigns?’

‘There is but one thing I _can_ do, my lord. I will serve you!’ His lord looked genuinely surprised by these words. ‘I will serve you and Lady Irina, whether you are pursuing the throne or not, I shall follow you!’

Although he would never admit it in more than three words, Hilmes was relieved that the only man he could consider a friend was committed enough to stay with him.

‘I am glad’ were the only words he spoke

**  
**

> **Several years – and a hardly explained genre swap – later. But not too many years, because we have to return and peek into business that wasn’t ours like the trashy people we are. Don’t even try to deny it.**

**  
**

Hilmes was leaning against the table with his right hand covering his face whilst Irina was giggling uncontrollably – trying to hide her laughter behind her hand – and Zandeh just did not know how to respond anymore. Zandeh was on his knees, with Nasrin on his back whilst she called ‘hyaa, uncle Zandeh hyaa.’

Irina had started laughing at the point that Nasrin had jumped onto Zandeh’s back with an audible grunt from the former knight – who had some of the air pressed out of his lungs. Although she could not see, by the sounds Nasrin made, she quickly figured out that her child was trying to learn how to ride a horse on a former army general’s back. The irony of Zandeh being in a horse’s position was not entirely lost on her either. 

‘M-my Lord!’ Zandeh stuttered to Hilmes ‘How do I proceed-oof’ he gasped as a set of heels landed in his flanks. 

Hilmes, by this point, was just barely containing laughter but somehow managed to speak a few words.  

‘Just go with it,’ he said in an uncharacteristically uneven voice. 

‘Hilmes,’ Irina giggled ‘would you not describe this scene to me?’

‘Well,’ he started, having difficulty to not start laughing as he walked over to his wife ‘Nasrin has managed to force Zandeh to sit on his hands and knees, saying she was looking for a toy and he had to help her find it. Then she jumped on his back and is now trying to learn how to ride a horse. She keeps digging her heels into Zandeh’s sides to try and make him move. His face has a mixture of confusion and desperation written onto it. It’s quite the sight. Our daughter seems to have relentlessly tamed one of the most powerful generals of our time.’

Irina’s giggling intensified when her husband described to her how Zandeh followed his order and went with it. Eventually the general-degraded-to-horse had a smile on his face as well as he happily Nasrin rode on his back across the house. 

‘Uncle Zandeh is a bad horse.’ the little girl uttered

‘Why is that?’ her father asked her.

‘He doesn’t make horsy sounds.’

‘Well Zandeh, I would suggest you learn from this girl or we will have to find her a new horse.’ 

After a few more heels in his side, Zandeh decided that there was no helping it. With a sigh he resigned himself to the fate he had gotten himself into when he “helped search the girl for her toy” and crouched down on his hands and knees. He led out some poor whinnying sounds and Nasrin laughed happily. This brought a smile to Zandeh’s face – and sent his lord bursting out laughing. Irina took his arm and they laughed together. 

  


> **Another few years – and several hundreds of thousands of etiquette lessons for the lovely Nasrin – later**

**  
**

‘Uncle Zandeh, would you care to join my mother and I for tea?’

Said uncle shot a panicked glance at his lord, who decided it was a good moment to conveniently put his nose down on the scroll he was reading. 

‘Please, Lord Zandeh, it is impolite to outright deny a woman’s request’ the girl’s mother piped in. 

As Zandeh moved towards the table that the girl had decorated for her weekly tea party with her mother, she gave him a shocked look.

‘Why, Lord Uncle! You cannot possibly be trying to tell me that you would attend a ladies’ tea party whilst you are wearing such rags. We cannot! We must not have it! Come! Come with me! We shall mend this debacle lest your social standing would be destroyed!’ 

She took his hand and pulled him over to her box of toys and creations. Zandeh did not like where this was going. He knew that in the wooden box she kept several fabrics that she had modelled into a sort of clothes. He did not know that she shared them with anyone so he had never seen the box as a threat. Until now. 

‘No, no, no. This is all wrong. Maybe if we try- Yes! That is it! Lord Zandeh, would you _please_ come over here? Here you go, put these on and you shall be able to attend our social gathering without damage to your socials status.’

Zandeh stared at the clothes that were pushed in his hands as though he asked for bread and got mud – not that he had asked for anything in the first place. Lady Irina and Nasrin seemed to be enjoying themselves though, and that made Lord Hilmes happy in turn. Therefore, Zandeh would pull through this struggle as well. He had faced the fiercest of enemies. He had fought the Mardan fu Mardan and lived – though he didn’t win – surely he would be able to survive a tea party with his lord’s wife and child?

‘Lord Zandeh?’ said Irina in an amused tone ‘It is very impolite to keep the Lady Nasrin waiting after she so generously invited you.’

And so they sat down as the women chatted of all and nothing whilst Zandeh sat awkwardly sipping his tea.

‘Lord Zandeh, you have been quiet thus far. Tell me, what are your thoughts on the current state of the palace? Whilst my mother, the Lady Irina, argued that we are quite well and the walls are in decent state. I, however, argue that she cannot see.’ Zandeh nearly choked on his tea as the girl continued ‘Would you share your insightful opinions with us?’

Zandeh threw a distressed look at Lord Hilmes who waved it off and continued reading. 

‘Lord Father! I find your current conduct to be quite unworthy of the lord of this palace. Know you not that when we have guests, you should display hospitality instead of working in your office? Mother are you not ashamed of his poor manners?’

Hilmes looked at his daughter, completely dumbfounded. He tried to find a proper response but before he could, Irina interrupted his train of thoughts. 

‘Indeed I am quite ashamed, my daughter. His current conduct leaves room for improvement’

Hilmes’ eyes widened in shock. It was not every day that both his wife and daughter challenged him like this. Zandeh gave his lord a pensive look pondering the fate they had gotten themselves into. Once respected men in command of thousands, they were now defied by Lord Hilmes’ wife and their seven-year-old daughter. It was quite a longshot from the throne they had both imagined or the army they would have commanded. Regrets, though, seemed something neither of them had. Zandeh had – rather unflawlessly – rolled into the role of godparent and uncle. Hilmes gladly took up the role of father and provider for his family. Just four commoners with common jobs, miles and aeons away from court life. Zandeh looked from the two would-be ladies to his lord and saw they were smiling – except Hilmes who was still dumbfounded – and he smiled himself. 

‘I, too, am of the opinion that Lord Hilmes’ behaviour is quite outside of the expected.’ Zandeh said, defying his lord for the very first time, with a careful grin on his face. 

Hilmes’ look, if possible, displayed an even greater amount of disbelief. He could only stare at the three faces that just defied him, once crown prince of all of Pars. Then he blinked and bowed in an exaggerated fashion. 

‘Why of course, my ladies, my lord. How very rude of me. I shall join you at once.’

Once he raised his head, there was a reserved smile on his face. He could live this life and never look back at what he lost. He sat down at the table and took the cup of tea that was already made for him. 

‘However, Lord Zandeh, I would say that the manner you dare speak to me is out of place as well.’ 

Zandeh’s face drained of all colour and he swallowed hard. 

‘A-apologies, my lord!’

The corners of Hilmes’ mouth turned up into an evil grin.

‘The punishment is death, if proven guilty of course. We shall hold a trial by combat to decide your fate. Your opponent shall be,’ Hilmes paused for a second ‘the Lady Nasrin.’

The colour returned to the ex-general’s face, but just for a second. Even he realised that combat against Lady Nasrin – whether in jest or not – would be neither easy nor enjoyable. He looked at the girl who smiled wickedly, slowly set down her cup, and spoke in a too-sweet voice;

‘Let’s step outside, shall we. Uncle Zandeh.’


End file.
